  Edmonton Oilers' Jeff Deslauriers pokes the puck away from Ottawa Senators' Mike Fisher on Tuesday Nov.10, 2009. (CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)
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It wasn’t pretty for the Senators, but the two points look pretty good, no matter how they come.
On the night winger Jonathan Cheechoo finally scored his first goal in an Ottawa uniform, it was Jason Spezza who played the role of hero by scoring the winner in a 4-3 shootout victory over the Edmonton Oilers to allow the Senators to close out this four-game homestand with two victories.
While Chris Neil and Nick Foligno also scored for the Senators, goaltender Pascal Leclaire made 31 stops in regulation to secure the win. Spezza, the third shooter, tucked it underneath Jeff Desauliers after a deke to beat him on the stick side.
With 6:49 left in the third and the result looking grim, Neil scored what should have been the winner by going hard to the net and pushing it underneath Deslauriers. Up to that point, the Senators had relied on Leclaire to save the day.
That was until Gilbert Brule tied it up with his fifth of the season at 15:17 of the third. Leclaire couldn’t stop a shot from Brule that slipped through his five hole. All Brule had to do was deposit into the net and all of a sudden a strong effort was put to waste.
With a 1-2-2 lifetime record and .856 save-percentage against the Oilers lifetime going into the game, Leclaire had a lot to prove himself. He had to be spectacular in the third with Edmonton outshooting an opponent for the first time in 17 games, he was called upon.
With the score tied 2-2, Leclaire halted Dustin Penner on the doorstep early in the third.
Leclaire caught a break a few minutes later when Andrew Cogliano missed the net in alone on a backhander. A few minutes later he stopped Denis Grebeschkov.
The Senators certainly did heed the call from coach Cory Clouston for more discipline, but it didn’t result in any power plays for the club through 40 minutes. Only captain Daniel Alfredsson was called for hooking and the Oilers weren’t able to capitalize with the man advantage.
While the Senators were outshot 15-6 in the second period, the only place it counted was on the scoreboard. Foligno scored his fourth of the season when he backhanded a slick pass from Ryan Shannon in the slot by Deslauriers on the glove side at 3:16 of the second.
For his part, Leclaire had to be sharp in the second. He did make a good pad stop off of Grebeschkov midway through the period. It really didn’t seem like the Senators were getting out played that badly and Mike Fisher did bounce one off the post.
Breaking a 15-game slump that stretched back to April 5 with San Jose, Cheechoo’s first goal with the Senators was a beauty. It came as a result of some hard work by Kovalev knocking Oilers’ defenceman Lubomir Visnovsky off the puck in the corner.
Kovalev then threw it out front to Cheechoo, who looked like a goal scorer firing a bullet upstairs that Deslaurier didn’t stand any chance of stopping at 13:30 of the first to it up 1-1.
That should have ignited the Senators, but it didn’t quite work that way.
Trying to throw the puck along the boards, defenceman Alex Picard’s attempt bounced off the skate of Peter Regin to Ethan Moreau in the circle. He fired a shot from the circle that beat Leclaire on the short side at 16:24 to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
The Oilers can also given an assist to Leclaire on the opening goal. While Penner was credited with the effort battling Brian Lee in the crease, Leclaire, scrambling to get down, knocked the puck off the knob of his stick into the net to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead only 7:33 into the game.
The Senators travel to Philadelphia Thursday to face former teammate Ray Emery and the Flyers. Game time is 7 p.m.
